Google Quantum Computer : 100X Faster than a PC

Announcing the results of its experiment, Google says Quantum Computer is More than 100 Million times faster than a regular PC.

Two years ago, Google and NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) bought a D-Wave 2X quantum computer, which they have been experimenting at the U.S. space agency's Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California for the past two years.

The goal is to create a better way to solve highly complex problems in seconds rather than years.

Now, a Google's Quantum AI team appears to have announced the results of its latest test on D-Wave 2X quantum computer, demonstrating that quantum annealing can outperform simulated annealing by over 108 times – that is 100,000,000 times faster.

What is Quantum Computers?

Quantum computers can theoretically be so much faster because they take advantage of quantum mechanics. While traditional computers use the "bits" to represent information as a 0 or a 1, quantum computers use "qubits" to represent information as a 0, 1, or both at the same time.

In turn, this allows Quantum computers to achieve a correct answer much faster and efficiently through parallel processing.

Google's D-Wave 2X Quantum Computer:

Now, the Google Quantum Artificial Intelligence Lab has announced that its D-Wave machine is considerably much faster than simulated annealing – quantum computation simulation on a classical computer chip.

"We found that for problem instances involving nearly 1000 binary variables, quantum annealing significantly outperforms its classical counterpart, simulated annealing. It is more than 108 times faster than simulated annealing running on a single core," said Hartmut Neven, Google's director of engineering.

Google: Our Quantum Machine is 100 Million Times Faster

Google has also published a paper [PDF] on the findings, claiming that the team was able to perform a calculation with the quantum computing technology that was significantly faster than a conventional computer with a single core processor.

The researchers emphasized that their research on quantum computing is still in the early stages and has yet to be commercialized which could take decades.

"While these results are intriguing and very encouraging, there is more work ahead to turn quantum enhanced optimization into a practical technology," Neven wrote.

However, the team of Google and NASA researchers announced on Tuesday that the tests on D-Wave machines using Quantum Monte Carlo algorithm simulates running an optimization problem on ordinary silicon, and again the results were more than 100 Million times faster than a conventional computer

World's First Mind Controlled Car

When automobiles giant like Nissan, Toyota and Tesla are focusing on self-driving smart cars, Chinese researchers have taken the future of automotive car driving technology to the level that's beyond your imaginations.

Chinese researchers have built what they claim is the World's First Mind-Controlled Car — that uses nothing but human’s brain power to drive.

Isn't that sound like a piece of some Sci-Fi movies?

But it's true.

World's First Mind-Controlled Car

The team of researchers from Nankai University, in the north-east port city of Tianjin, has designed a brainsignal-reading headgear instrument that allows a driver to:

• Drive forward
• Drive backwards
• Come to a Stop
• Both Lock and Unlock the vehicle

...all without using his/her hands or feet.

The team has spent almost two years bringing the mind-controlled car to the reality.

How Does the Mind-Controlled Car Work? Watch in Action

Zhang Zhao, one of the project's researchers, told Reuters the headgear equipment comprises of 16 electroencephalogram (EEG) sensors that are used to capture driver's brain signals when worn.

The brain signals will then be transmitted wirelessly to a computer program, which will then translate those signals to the relevant automotive commands and pass the control commands to the car, enabling car control.

The new technology of self-driving cars is aimed at the betterment of human beings. Soon, it might be possible to integrate brain-controlled technology to driverless cars, like the Google Self-Driving Car (SDC).

However, the technology is very much in progress with the researchers at the phase where their unique car, provided by Chinese car manufacturer Great Wall Motor, can only drive in straight direction currently using brain power.

The brain-fuelled automotive technology was initially inspired by the idea to help physically handicapped people who are unable to steer their vehicles.

Besides helping physically disabled people and assisting in checking pollution, the team says its system is also safe from absent-mindedness because concentration in these newer cars is only needed to change vehicle’s moving status, like changing lanes or turning.

France won't Ban TOR & Free Wi-Fi

Despite the French Ministry of Interior's demands, France will not ban the TOR anonymity network or Free public Wi-Fi as a way to help the law enforcement fight terrorism.

French Prime Minister Manual Valls has gone on record saying that a ban on Free public Wi-Fi is "not a course of action envisaged," and he is not in favor of banning the TOR anonymity network, either.

Following the deadly terror attacks on Paris last month, an internal document obtained by Le Monde indicated that French government wanted to block communications of TOR as well as ban the use of Free Public Wi-Fi during states of emergency in an effort to fight terrorism more efficiently.

TOR and Free Wi-Fi Safe in France, PM Says 

"A ban of [free public] Wi-Fi is not a course of action envisaged [and never has been]," Valls said (translated) on Wednesday. 

Neither he is in favor of banning the TOR network, which encrypts and re-routes user traffic through a network of volunteer-operated servers, masking the real identities of users.

"Internet is a Freedom, is an extraordinary means of communication between people, it is a benefit to the economy," Valls added. "It's also a means for terrorists to communicate and spread their totalitarian ideology."

Therefore, he said the police must take some measures to improve their fight against terrorism in light of recent Paris attacks, but whatever measures they take to combat terrorism "must be effective."

The whole world response to recent Paris attacks involves lawmakers in the United States and Europe calling for new laws on technology, forcing the tech companies to put "backdoors" in their products and hand over encryption keys to the government on court orders.

Censys : that scans entire Internet EVERYDAY.

Meet an all-new Hacker’s Search Engine similar to Shodan – Censys.

At the end of last month, security researchers from SEC Consult found that the lazy manufacturers of home routers and Internet of Things (IoT) devices have been re-using the same set of hard-coded cryptographic keys, leaving around 3 millions of IoT devices open to mass hijacking.

But how did the researchers get this number?

Researchers uncovered these devices with the help of Censys – a new search engine that daily scans the whole Internet for all the vulnerable devices.

Censys Maintains Complete Database of Everything on The Internet

Censys is similar to hacker's search engine Shodan, which is designed specifically to locate any devices that have been carelessly plugged into the Internet without much attempt at preventing unauthorized access.

However, Censys employs a more advanced method to find vulnerabilities in the devices and make the Internet a safer place.

Censys is a free search engine that was originally released in October by researchers from the University of Michigan and is powered by the world's biggest search engine Google.

Censys is part of an open source project that aims at maintaining a "complete database of everything on the Internet," helping researchers and companies unearth Online security mishaps and vulnerabilities in products and services.

How Does Censys Work?

Censys collects information on hosts and websites via daily scans of the IPv4 address space – the internet protocol version 4 that routes the majority of the Internet traffic today.

In order to do so, the new search engine uses two companion tools:

• ZMap – an open-source network scanner
• ZGrab – an application layer scanner

Censys then maintains a database of how hosts and websites are configured, allowing researchers to query the data through a search interface, report builder, and SQL engine.

ZMap scans over 4 Billion IP addresses on the Internet and collects new data every day. It also helps determine whether the machines on the internet have security vulnerabilities that should be fixed before being exploited by the hackers.

"We have found everything from ATMs and bank safes to industrial control systems for power plants. It's kind of scary," said Zakir Durumeric, the researcher leading the Censys project at the University of Michigan.

Obvious flaws in addition to issues caused by IT administrator failures can also be found.

Here's the MIT Technology Review on Censys, titled "A Search Engine for the Internet’s Dirty Secrets."

More details on the Censys architecture and functionalities are available in the team's research paper.

If you would like to give Censys a try, you can follow the step-by-step tutorial offered by the developers.

PaperLab Recycles damaged paper and make fresh paper

Epson has developed what they call "the first ever in-office paper recycling machine",  which takes used documents and turns them into clean, white, blank sheets -- in just three minutes.

The PaperLab, which Epson claim will "revolutionise recycling" is capable of reusing 14 sheets of A4 paper per minute -- meaning 6,720 sheets could be produced in a regular eight hour day. It can also produce different kinds of paper -- A3 sheets, thick paper for business cards, coloured paper and even scented paper. 

The machine works by utilising a "dry process" to recycle and produce the paper. First, the paper is 'fiberised' -- turned into "long, thin, cottony fibers" then bound, which adds new substances to change the paper's properties, and finally formed into the shape and size of the final product. Epson haven't given much away about the technical details of the machine, but what we do know is that it requires far less liquid than traditional pulping methods. Because the paper is turned into these fibers, Epson also claim that the machine is a way of destroying and recycling confidential documents. 

Epson have also so far not demonstrated the machine working in practice, so it remains to be seen how useful (and, more pertinently, loud, expensive and energy-hungry) the machine would be.

It's not the first revolutionary recycling technique, of course.

• Back in 2014, WIRED reported on a recycling technique that would turn ground-up old car tyres into asphalt, to improve the quality of ageing roads.
• Another, reported in 2013, transformed plastic household waste into the raw materials used in 3D printing by melting down unwanted material and turning into plastic filament, the 'goop' that 3D printers use to form objects.
• The Japanese 'Blest Machine' allowed consumers to recycle plastic into oil in their own homes 
• This remote control car powered itself by turning recycled aluminium scraps like ring pulls -- into hydrogen and then into power

Epson say the PaperLab will be put into production in 2016, and a prototype will be displayed next week at the Toyko Big Sight exhibition next week.